15 Jan How long should a blog post be?

In a past world of information dominated by professional journalists, the digital age has given rise to the independent, amateur writer offering up their own opinions without the need for official credentials.

These bloggers and their
blogs have taken the online stratosphere by storm. Now, some of them stand as
the most trustworthy voice in any given subject.

At Bird Consultancy, we like to keep our blog up to date with relevant news and opinions which followers of a Manchester PR agency might be interested to know.

But, a common question
posed by many would-be bloggers starting out is:

‘How long should a blog
post be?’

A popular answer we often here is, “between 500 and 1000 words.”

Where this information comes from we have no idea, and we’re almost certain the people offering up these numbers don’t have a clue either.

To be honest, it’s like
asking “how long is a piece of string?”

There could be an
infinite number of answers, all with various factors to be taken into account.

What these people should
be asking is: “what purpose should this blog serve?”

Because once you have answered this question you can then go back and begin to consider the length of the overall piece, as the two go hand in hand.

The length of a blog post should be catered to the type of response you as a writer expects.

For example if you are
looking for your blog post to rank highly on search engines, primarily Google,
you’ll want to make sure your post is on the upper end of two thousand words.
Maybe even three thousand.

Currently, Google seems
to be responding well to long form content, meaning if your post reaches
somewhere close to this word count or even a little higher, chances are it will
fare better with Google and be much easier to find online.

This wasn’t always the
case though, and Google’s preferences are ever evolving, so it’s worth keeping
an eye out on what the current trend is whenever you intend to publish your
work.

However at the other end of the spectrum, short-form pieces of a couple of hundred words or more don’t tend to fare very well with search engines. but do exceptionally well across social media. Short-form posts should be catered towards garnering interaction online instead of search engine hits.

If you enjoy browsing
stories on social media, you’ll probably be familiar with these kinds of posts
as they are always the ones to generate a lot of like, comments and clicks.

So, the next time you’re
looking for something that’s guaranteed to draw a few eyes on social media
don’t make it too long.

But on the other hand, if
you’re looking to release something with a bit more of a professional feel to
it, seven hundred to eight hundred words is your best bet.

Generally, this is the
average length of a story released by professional reporters.

While they’re not the
shortest pieces in the world, they still have the potential to garner a decent
number of shares on social media.

Probably the best length
for something a bit more in-depth, without losing the advantage of
shareability.

These are only
suggestions, though. At the end of the day, the length of a blog post comes
down to one single, unchangeable factor: You.

How long do you want it
to be? What feels best for you?

Because in the end you
can write a blog post to be a specific length for a specific purpose, but if it
doesn’t feel right it’s probably not
going to read right to other people
either.

This is a topic that
people tend to go way overboard on, throwing conflicting and illogical answers
all over the place.

The beauty of the format
is that this blog post, which currently stands at around six hundred and fifty
words, could have been reserved for a few short, simple words: